NEWS RELEASE
January 8, 2025
Akamai digital configurator video, courtesy of MKThink for Hawai‘i School Facilities Authority
Computer-generated 3D space planning drawings: :30 – :48
Schematic drawings of classrooms: 1:21 – 1:42
Akamai digital configurator fact sheet
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hawai‘i School Facilities Authority Unveils Akamai,
a New Digital Configurator that
Automates School Design to Save Time and State Taxpayer Money
Honolulu, Hawai‘i—More industries are adopting the use of technology to automate time-consuming tasks to spend more time on strategic decision-making. The Hawai‘i School Facilities Authority (SFA), the state agency tasked by the legislature to modernize school construction processes, is joining other organizations at the forefront of the digital age.
SFA is accelerating the renovation of existing school classrooms or the construction of new schools using a newly developed tool aptly called Akamai, a digital configurator capable of doing the work of multiple teams with specialized skills. The result: time and cost savings over conventional architectural and engineering methods that can potentially serve as model for other states.
“Technology is changing the way everyone is doing business. SFA is moving the state forward and fulfilling our critical mission of building school facilities smarter and more efficiently. We can cut the time for pre-planning construction tasks by 60 percent and trim our use of state funds by up to 15 percent over traditional methods,” said Riki Fujitani, SFA’s executive director. “We want to make out-of-the box approaches and innovation the new norm.”
“We can input our space constraints and other parameters in the Akamai system and, within the same day, receive options for building designs, floor plans, and use of different types of building materials — information that typically would take months to obtain,” he added. “This rapid-fire automation allows us to make immediate, multi-perspective decisions with accurate cost estimates and projected funding requirements.”
The new tools embeds human judgment in the process. Feedback from Hawai‘i educators provided the initial parameters for the Akamai’s system to keep its proposed recommendations grounded in the real-world needs of educators.
“The average age of our public school buildings is more than 50 years old and were envisioned to be static classrooms with neat rows of desks and chairs in mind,” Fujitani said. “Our Akamai system optimizes classroom spaces to accommodate new, dynamic teaching methods for 21st century learning. This also frees up human architects to address other, more complex issues of design.”
SFA has commissioned MKThink, a local strategic planning and architectural firm based in Honolulu and San Francisco, to rethink the way schools are built to accelerate the complete lifecycle of the design-to-build process, starting with the planning and design phases, so that badly needed classrooms can be completed at a faster pace.
“SFA is doubling down our efforts to be a catalyst for positive change in our state by adopting standardized designs to avoid having to reinvent the wheel for each new school building project,” Fujitani said. “This also lowers maintenance costs in the long run because all schools will eventually have the same building parts.”
This business process improvement initiative harnesses technology to deliver results and cost savings. Over the past six months, MKThink’s CEO Nate Goore, Director of Client Success Chris Hong, and Director of Business DevelopmentEmilio Goldenhersch have served as the masterminds behind this initiative. They are adeptly weaving together more than a dozen different existing software systems to create a powerful, integrated, one-stop shop system that seamlessly completes the school planning phase with a few clicks, tasks that conventional methods would require months or even years to complete.
The cloud-enabled workflow provides a structured approach to project management, integrating cloud platforms, real-time data sharing, and communication tools to improve accuracy, productivity, and teamwork. This systems approach connects student enrollment, space program, designed layout, site location, and other variables to rapidly move through phases and accomplish milestones and tasks that would take days, weeks, or even months to do.
The Akamai digital configurator works like this: while on the platform, a user fills in the number of students and the grades that need to be served in a specific geography and address, the type of construction suggested for the particular project, and whether it is a new instructional building or a classroom replacement project. The interface then displays the optimal configuration of the school within the proposed square footage or parcel of land, along with the estimated project cost.
The tasks in the pre-design phase would typically take between six and 18 months, but the Akamai digital configurator slashes the time to less than one day. The workflow then connects the user to Revit, a software widely used to create detailed digital models of buildings and infrastructure, entering the schematic design phase. This is layered with details on construction requirements, including 3-D schematic drawings, automatic workflow recommendations, and various options for the user to select, such as exterior and interior colors, classroom furniture configurations, and other variables.
MKThink anticipates the system will be fully developed and ready to be deployed with all of the features and functionality by early 2027, and plans to start using the first phase of the configurator by this summer.
“We are compressing the timeline on these tasks and saving taxpayer dollars so that more funds can be allocated for other pressing needs in our state,” Goore said. “The Akamai digital configurator also reduces human error to avoid costly change orders and delays.”
In the following year of the digital configurator’s development, Goldenhersch will add capabilities related to the construction documents, procurement, and construction phases, enabling the user to connect to increase the technologies running in the cloud workflow that are associated with the project, and download detailed outputs, accelerating the lifecycle process, overall reducing time and cost.
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About the Hawai‘i School Facilities Authority
The Hawaiʻi School Facilities Authority (SFA) is a state agency established in 2020-21 that was authorized in 2022-23 to build preschools, central Maui schools and workforce housing. SFA repurposes public school lands to create bold, future-ready spaces that meet the evolving needs of students, teachers, and communities in an efficient, cost-effective manner. By streamlining planning, standardizing school designs, and cultivating public-private partnerships, SFA delivers results at an accelerated pace.
Media Contacts:
Cheri Nakamura
Policy and Program Manager
Hawai‘i School Facilities Authority
(808) 375-5066
Nathan Hokama
Strategic Communication Solutions
(808) 226-7470
nhokama@scsolutions-hi.com
